Oh good someone has noticed the correlation between the rise of the rat population and fortnightly rubbish collections

[Caligula]

Dur.

It isn't really that hard to predict, is it?

news story here

Ours works really well. We have a fortnightly rubbish collection, BUT recycling we use
Black box - paper, glass, tins, clothes, petrol cans(!)
Brown box - all food waste
Green Bin or green bag - garden waste
Cardboard - collected with the food waste
Plastic bottles - go to bottle bank at supermarket.

So in actuality not that much goes into the black wheelie bin, and no food waste. We don't fill ours in a fortnight, and we are a family of 5.

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dont you all think its mad that there isnt one general waste collection re-cycling routine that is adhered to generally?
all councils collecting same stuff, same day - thats it. you could go anywhere in country and know what was happening and recycle rates would increase (as council rates always do, i agree)
i just think its madness in tiny island with all our global problems as well that we dont recycle properly at all and seem to have no eagerness - we could adopt the dutch scheme of recycling disposables etc..
it makes me gag the volume of household crap we have to deal with..

and my other idea is to tax the packagers! that would work; and all bottles returnable etc..simple stuff..

oh and i see loads of rats lately, one particularly cute family near the doctors last month, and big some too..thought they were nocturnal?
but we are on weekly collections too arargghh

can i just have a moan about going to the recycling plant.
we live in twickenham and take electrical waste and other such big items to the special recycling area in Kew.
Now with west london traffic that can take about 45 mins each way.
so we drive for an hour and a half with our boot full of stuff, a few times a year.
There are always lots of cars there doing the same.
Why don't they send out a collection vehicle, say once a quarter to collect this stuff. Then people would a) be more likely to recycle big items like this and b) cut down on traffic!

moan complete. am i missing something?

I sneak over the border and try to blend in.

Our rubbish is collected once a fortnight and it is officially disgusting. I had to move the wheely bin to the bottom of the garden last summer as the flies were unbelievable

twickersmum

The Hounslow one is probably nearer to you it is in Space Way, Feltham.

Reminded me of this guardian article

I could swap you some lovely rats, mellow!

The building I work in is infested w/them. We have a ratcatcher out every fortnight.

Last year, they managed to burrow under the paving stones in the basement area and get into the girls' toilets.

Such a lovely family they were, too.

Embra's finest .

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Rats are never trendy .

Do you have CAT capabilities?

Cuz we're busting a gut trying to get the hell out of here.

It's too bloody expensive. Even DH, a native, feels this way.

Another hot summer listening the neighbours' music will drive me round the twist, not to mention the punters at the pub down the road AND the bloody construction noise across the street as the old, rat filled warehouse is redeveloped into an 'exciting and unique opportunity in loft living'.

One bed spaces starting at £140,000 fixed price and stamp duty paid!

A bargain!

This is a very trendy area now.

It's gone beyond 'up and coming' and has officially arrived.

It's got hte property values to prove it, too.

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thanks cece, yes i am sure it is! next time.

I don't have a problem with the council uplifting rubbish twice a month, it's all the other things that annoy me. For example one of DH's colleagues lives in a village, about 5 miles from us. He has fortnightly collections, and his bin is always overflowing, lid never shut, and they empty the bin. Where i am now, still on once a week collections, if the bin lid is open even by millimetres, they A) take the offending bag out and dump it on the street, to be blown about or attacked by birds/cats etc.
B) Put a letter through the door saying if it happens again you will be fined.
So how can 5 miles make such a difference to the rules? Same with the paper/cardboard bins, if the lid isn't shut proerly they take the offending paper out and leave on the street to get blown around, thus causing more rubbish
Every week we have to drive to get rid of our plastic bottles - only clear ones, and not ones which have had cleaning products in them. Not plastic packing from foodstuffs either.
We take all our glass, we take tins. We take excess plastic bags to tesco.
We have paper uplift once a onth, but have to put extra papers in when we do our once a month recycling trip.
Yet where my mum lives, she can go to carlisle and get rid of ALL plastics, all bottles, everything at her recycling plant.
So how come some councils can recycle everything, and other's can't. I always laugh to myself when i see F*kin council bin lorries with their big adverts telling people not to drop litter, yet they quite happily drop big bin bags of rubbish on the street to make a mess1

I often don't fill a black bag in a week either, but it still needs to be collected even if it is only half a bag, because it stinks and it attracts rats if left out too long.

I don't think it's a question of how much rubbish there is, it's a question of the fact that it is hanging around the place for so long. Two weeks is too long, The World Health Organisation's advice is good enough for me.

What i should have said was that I do object to teh rubbish being left for a fortnight to be collected. It does stink. What i meant was that i don't always fill my bin, so don't have a problem with it in that respect!

they introduced fortnightly collections here too

they were so unpopular it iwas a big local elections debate

the party who siad they'd re-introduce weekly collections won and we are now back to oncw a week

paper goes once a week too

garden/veg waste and tins/glass/plastic are every 2 weeks

this is madness really..depressing actually..

Surely comapnys could help with this by using less packaging. There would be less to throw away.

Yes but politicians take the sensible principle that "the polluter pays" and apply it to people like you and me. Not their friends' corporations who issue the junk mail, produce the packaging to minimise transport damage to imported products and even develop effective supermarket monopolies so the only fruit and veg. I can get comes encased in plastic.

thats what i mean, if they taxed overpackaged stuff at point of sale they packagers would not overpackage,, less would be used...
missed opportunity, but difficult to lobby/sell such ideas to those who could make a change...

upwind i agree..if only they thought that being in public office was to do some public good..

I know this is late but just wanted to add my bit! I've been recycling for years, since the first glass schemes were started. But now our council has now got a ridiculous regime. Our wheely bins are collected fortnightly. A lone widow and the family of seven up our road have the same capacity. We were 'allowed' to put out an extra two black bags over Xmas but there was no Xmas tree collection this year.

We have a monthly paper collection but are not allowed to include envelopes, greetings cards, wrapping paper or cardboard, so all you're left with is newspaper, really. We can recycle glass and some plastic at the tip but guess what? The tip was closed during December! There is no provision for getting rid of garden rubbish and food waste is supposed to be put in a food digester, which just doesn't work in the northern reaches of Scotland. Any large items for disposal cost £35 a shot!! No wonder rats are making a comeback.